Dohoney: Without extra money, streetcar project dead

May 14, 2013

City Manager Milton Dohoney (center), seen here with Mayor Mark Mallory at a 2011 streetcar sign unveiling, says he won’t know an updated cost for the project until he signs a contract with Messer Construction. / Enquirer file photo/Gary Landers

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Jane Prendergast

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Cincinnati needs $17.4 million more to move forward with the streetcar – and council will vote on that before they know whether the project’s low bidder will stick to its bid or charge more.

The $17.4 million is needed to cover the gap between what the city expected construction to cost and the $70.9 million Messer Construction bid. The catch is that Messer’s bid is expired. Company officials tell the city they want to continue with the project, but City Manager Milton Dohoney says he won’t know an updated cost until he signs a contract with Messer.

If council says no to $17.4 million, Dohoney said, "in effect we would be ending (the project) because we could not go forward with that gap.”

Trying to assuage concern that this might not be the last time the administration asks for more money to finish the streetcar, the manager said the current total pricetag of $133 million includes a $10 million contingency for unexpected costs.

He would never ask for a blank check for any project, he said. And while he said there would be a price at which he would suggest the project stop, he didn’t know what that figure might be yet. Pressed by Councilman Christopher Smitherman, Dohoney said he would have to give some thought to it.

City council members talked about the cost overrun for three hours Monday. Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, committee chairwoman, said she expects to vote in two weeks.

She asked Dohoney about the cost of lost opportunity if the streetcar project doesn’t continue. He said he would come up with a way to estimate that, but threw out that one measure would be the development, or lack thereof, of the 92 acres of property downtown along and near the route that’s currently surface parking.

Councilman Charlie Winburn tried to push a motion to “cease and desist” on the streetcar. But only he and Smitherman signed it.

Councilman Chris Seelbach said he worries more requests for extra funding could come down the pike. His parents always told him, he said, that "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior...It worries me."

Dohoney defended his previous cost estimate of $110 million, saying it was set in 2009 and he warned repeatedly since then that delaying construction would add to the cost.